Boulder and the University of Colorado are taking the first steps toward annexation of the 300-acre parcel of land known as CU Boulder South.

With help from two consultants, the city is conducting site-suitability studies to determine which areas of the property — located in Boulder County south of Table Mesa Drive and west of U.S. 36 — may be suitable for development.

If you go

What: Open house for land use change requests for CU South, other properties

Send ideas or comments about CU Boulder South to Lesli Ellis at 303-441-1898.

CU officials say that though annexation may occur within the next few years, intense urban development of the site is still years away.

Those suitability studies — which are examining the site's environmental conditions, plant and wildlife ecology, flooding and drainage, transportation access and other conditions — will help guide city staff recommendations for changes to the Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan land-use designations for the site.

If those changes are approved by the Boulder City Council, Boulder Planning Board, Boulder County Board of Commissioners and Boulder County Planning Commission, annexation talks could begin in 2018, said Lesli Ellis, Boulder's comprehensive planning manager.

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The city and CU are inviting members of the public to provide feedback at an open house on Monday evening at St. Paul's United Methodist Church in Boulder. The open house is also a chance for community members to discuss change requests at these properties: 2130 and 6287 Arapahoe Ave.; 385 Broadway; 0, 693 and 695 S. Broadway; and 3485 Stanford Court.

There will be future opportunities to learn more about the CU Boulder South site and provide feedback, including an Oct. 20 Boulder Planning Board meeting, an Oct. 24 meeting to gather public input, an Oct. 26 Open Space Board of Trustees meeting and a Nov. 10 City Council and Planning Board joint study session, among others.

City staffers plan to finalize their recommendations in February 2017.

CU's purchase of the property — which had been an old gravel mine — 20 years ago was controversial. City leaders and neighbors vocally opposed development of the land and wanted it to remain open space.

Over the years, however, CU has done virtually nothing on the property, instead building out East Campus. CU Boulder South is currently home to tennis courts, a warehouse building with office space, a cross-country running course and a public trail. "Town-gown" relations have improved, too.

'Needs to change'

Today, CU Boulder South has three land-use designations in the Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan: low-density residential, medium-density residential and open space/other.

A low-density residential designation allows for up to six housing units per acre and the medium-density residential designation allows for up to 14 units per acre. The majority of the land has the open space/other designation, which Ellis said she believes would "be a bit challenging" for CU's future plans, though its not clear what those plans are.

"The sense is that the land-use designation needs to change in order for CU to have the ability to master plan portions of the site for its future needs," Ellis said. "It is a property that is anticipated for some level of development, but not across the entire property and with some level of open space conservation. As we do this analysis, then the question becomes, what's the future mix and appropriate location for different things to occur?"

The university's 2011 master plan, which will be updated in 2021, identified roughly 165 acres that could be developed, with the remainder of the land used for natural areas, ponds and flood storage. That plan indicated that CU did not plan to develop the site between 2011 and 2021.

Ellis said city staffers are considering a range of land-use designation categories for their recommendation, including public, open space and residential. She said it's likely that a mix of designations would come forward in a recommendation.

Jeff Lipton, CU's director of real estate, said the short-term plans for the CU Boulder South property include solar panels and recreation and athletic fields. CU has also considered enhancing the existing tennis facility on the property with restrooms and locker rooms.

The university is also in the early stages of gathering information about workforce housing needs and — depending on what they learn — they may consider building workforce housing on several CU properties, including CU Boulder South, Lipton said.

"We looked at this as a long-term land bank and, that's not to say there might not be (development) plans in the future, but we don't have any plans now," Lipton said.

CU would eventually like Boulder to annex the property because, without water and sewer from the city, the university can't do much on the property.

Lipton said the university is not considering large-scale stadium facilities for the property.

"We don't know what we would do with it, but knowing that the needs of the university will evolve over the long term, it's important for us to know the city would be willing to service it," Lipton said. "Even if we're not doing urbanized development, there are things we would like to do where it would make sense for us to have water and wastewater, like rec fields."

Lipton added that CU is not planning to "close off" the property, which is frequently used by cross-country skiers, runners and dog walkers.

Because CU is a state entity, it doesn't need to follow the city's zoning requirements on its properties. The university is also not held to local land-use development standards, according to Ellis.

But, both Ellis and Lipton said that they hope negotiate some expectations and conditions for the development of the property during the annexation process. They also intend to consider public feedback.

"What we're going to be listening for is what are those things need to be addressed as part of that agreement to make sure the community, the city, CU, that we're all comfortable and on the same page about where this is going to be going," Ellis said.

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